Pitchfork

Now that I've read 50 articles about how the Arcade Fire practice in a church and record in a church and like to play churches on their tours, I'm starting to wonder if all this time spent in houses of worship hasn't locked them into too somber a mood. As epic as the intentions of Neon Bible clearly were, compared to its earlier work the band sounded here like it was holding something back, unwilling to let it all go in the kind of free-for-all peaks that marked Funeral.

"Broken Window" is that frustration in microcosm; no wonder that it was relegated to B-side status. For six-and-a-half minutes the song tensely walks a discomforting chord progression, adding instrument after instrument and threatening at times to blow into a brilliantly cathartic climax, before pulling back at the last moment. It's almost like Tantric existentialism, with Win Butler moaning Thom Yorke-ish paranoia ("Come out/ And put your hands on your head") with no relief or release.

[from the "Keep the Car Running" 7"; out now on Merge]